


Unity and Justice and Liberty

by MetaCapricorn



Category: Political RPF - German 20th c.
Genre: Eastern Germany, F/F, GDR, LGBT, M/M, Politics, Pre-Slash, Protests, Queer History, Slash, Socialism, Spies & Secret Agents, late 80s, national anthem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 19:45:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16125446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetaCapricorn/pseuds/MetaCapricorn
Summary: A city in the GDR 1989: She is 19 and trying to understand what it's worth risking a questioning by the secret service for. Or by her dead, which may be just the same. Or: Big Things on a small scale.





	Unity and Justice and Liberty

**Author's Note:**

> The text in italics is, in case anyone wondered, is drawn from the German national anthem, third part, which was also known in the GDR. I was thinking about the lyrics and wondered whether i could give them a new meaning, as nowadays they are only sung by football players (badly) or soldiers (maybe less badly?) and the whole thing for most (?) people reeks of nationalism or just feels rather cheesy and uncomfortable.  
> I have no idea whether there is an interest here for English stories from the GDR and, what's more, those that have ambiguous characters like Paul and Sarah's (the narrators) father. I thought, though, there should be more of those, both in English and in German, and because AO3 is a friendly space for a lot of dark and grey fanfiction it tought it fits here. Let me know what you think!

_Unity and justice and liberty_  
  
clenching her chest so much it hurts, is it desperation or elation that are too big for the cage of her ribs? "We are the people, WE are the people!" and flags with the shouts, black, red, and gold, and someone is humming the melody, the next one takes it up, they go from line to line  
  
 _for the German fatherland_  
  
who is that, she thinks, can't be my father,  
the Party, the Party --  
fuck the Party, she told him last week, and he was irate  
as long as your legs are under my table  
  
 _let us all strive towards these_  
  
before she went (to Sasha, she wanted to meet her at the demo), she'd turned around. There he sat, staring at the empty other half of the kitchen table, the silence crystalizing around him.  
In the crowd they are already  
  
 _brotherly, with heart and hand_  
  
and sisterly, she thinks, grandmotherly, friendly, yes, with the hearts and hands they are holding, holding onto, she and Sasha (a bit nervous, what, if someone sees them, or worse, recognizes them?), and then someone on the left takes her hand and continues humming, he is holding his other hand to his neighbour and the chain grows like large hydrocarbon molecule and she feels like a part of something big -- will they be as flexible as polyurethan?  
  
 _Unity_  
  
finally getting to know Grandpa, whom she only meets in his CARE packages from the West and who can't stand Dad, so it seems (so the walls are saying) -- some old story, maybe because he thinks there is only his way of  
  
 _Justice_  
  
boy, that pisses her off, just last week when she wanted to see Sasha. He liked her finally learning Russsian in earnest, but when he realized what for (for whom), he appeared freaked out -- Are you One of Those, too? Fuck that, what he thinks he talks about, as if she knew, but then she doesn't, because she is confused. Paul said Over There it's illegal (but only for guys) and here, she'd asked, no, he said, our Comrades were more progressive on that, and seemed proud, somehow, although she doesn't understand what there is to be proud of in this country.   
  
_Liberty_  
  
looks different: They should put you into the gas, an old man hissed at Paul, when she was at the theatre with him and his boyfriend. Paul called him a repugnant fascist and the fascist called him an ugly faggot and so everyone was right in their own way, as Paul remarked later drily. She doesn't really understand him, he knows Marx and Lenin as well as Klaus' upper, lower and middle body (he once told her what they are doing when they are not discussing socialism, woa...), and he likes to complain about the bigot fat cat in the Party (her father), and once (once!) she saw a strange list of names and dates in his room. Paul had looked at her and noone had said a thing.  
  
 _...are the pledge of happiness_  
  
That's a bit too much in her opinion, she is happy sitting on Sasha's sofa and taking small sips of the chocolate plus Sasha's mamka is making for them, and she is also happy when Grandma has been there for a visit and her father seems a little less sad and angry.   
  
_Flourish in glow of that happiness_  
  
that would be nice, more colours, less greyness, not being taken on by the cops because of that leather jacket, and if you had to go protest for that -- and this protest sense of community was, after all, rather nice, then so it be.  
  
 _Flourish, German fatherland._  
  
Oh, well ...  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Some explanations:
> 
> Sasha = short in Russian for Alexandra (and Alexander)
> 
> the Party, the Party, the Party is always right ("Lied der Partei") was a propaganda song with a very catchy rhythm, with the party being the SED (uniform/united socialist party)
> 
> leather jackets ... where seen as a sign of Western imperialism and thus frowned upon. The irony is that it was incredibly hard to get a real leather jacket, mostly if you had contacts to the West and/or were a Party official like Sarah's father.
> 
> Russian: everyone had to learn it and most people forgot as much as they could straight away.
> 
> Being gay: not illegal for men nor women since 1969 in GDR in contrast to the Federal Republic of Germany, where the hard Nazi version of the law banning consensual sexual interaction between men was toned down in the late 60s but still continued. On the other hand living openly gay or lesbian was hard, Nazi prejudices still prevailed (also racism and antisemitism) with the pressure of conformity, and so it was Not Done and also practically hard to achieve, because getting a flat was tied to a marriage certificate. It was easier after a divorce, however ... The secret service ("Stasi") liked to recruit gay people because coercion was even easier than with heterosexuals. In Paul's case, well, that's a story for another day.


End file.
